A/N:
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Summary: When shy and intelligent Ariella Potter and Quidditch hotshot Lucas Malfoy get paired together for a school project, Ariella knows that she shouldn't feel anything but hatred towards him. So why does she feel attracted to him? And what will Ariella do when Lucas returns her affections? Will they ever break free from their cliques and parents' rivalry so they can be together?
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Now onto our feature presentation. Here's Chapter Four! All I ask of you is to enjoy and please leave a review at the end of the chapter.
Chapter Four – A Warning.
The next day, a tall man that had jet-black hair with a few grey hairs scattered throughout it and sparkling emerald green eyes, he also had a stubbly beard as a result of him not having the time to shave that morning and looked a little like Ariella walked briskly through the halls of Hogwarts. When he found the office that he was looking for, the man didn't even bother to knock; he simply walked straight into the office. Once he was inside and the door had been shut, the man looked at the professor sat behind the desk. The professor looked at him and smiled.
"I wondered when you would find out Harry. Who told you?"
"My daughter owled me last night. I was not very impressed when I read what she had to say."
The professor looked at the man named Harry rather confused then asked, "Ari?"
Harry shook his head at the pure ignorance of the professor and laughed.
"Ember and her name is Ariella. I would prefer you to call her by her given name. I don't know why anyone would want to shorten their name when they have a perfectly good one already."
"Why would Ember tell you?"
"Because she knew that I would not be happy with this pairing. I don't think you should carry on with it. Please for my daughter's sake partner her with someone else."
"No why should I? What has Lucas Malfoy ever done to you?"
"It's not him. It's more of what his father did. Draco Malfoy tried to kill me, I swore when my children were born that they would have nothing to do with that family. If Malfoy finds out that my daughter is partnered with his son then he'll do something to her. I can't bear it if anything were to happen to her. My wife would kill me!"
"Harry, I'm sorry but it's happened. This is the way the project is happening and if it were to make you any happier then you should know that they hate each other. They can't bear to look at each other when they're together and whenever they are in this class they constantly glare at each other. I'm half expecting a duel to happen. And just for the record, Ginny would not kill you. She'd shout at you and ignore you but she would never kill you. She loves you too much."
"I'm still not happy with this idea. What if she were to befriend him? What example would it be to Felicity? I see that I'm going to have to fix this myself."
"If that happens then so be it. It wouldn't be the end of the world. After all this school is trying to promote house unity and as for setting an example for Felicity then I think that it would be a good example. It would show her not to hate someone because they happen to be in a rival house. Harry this is something that you are going to have to deal with."
Harry nodded slowly then walked out of the room because he knew that everything he had just been told was right. He couldn't influence his children to hate someone, as they would resent him for doing so. He still didn't like the fact that Ariella was working with Lucas but he knew that there was nothing he could do about it. The only thing he could do was to warn Ariella about the boy then ask someone close to her to keep an eye on her whenever she was around him. Once he had shut the office door behind him, Harry went off in search of his daughters.
A few minutes later, Harry reached his destination of Gryffindor Tower; of course he had had to ask a couple of Gryffindors along the way if they had seen either of his daughters. He paced up and down outside the portrait hole for a few minutes while he waited for a random Gryffindor to come along so he could ask them to go and fetch his daughters. After a few more minutes of waiting a Gryffindor first year walked along the corridor and looked at the adult in front of her. Harry smiled at her and beckoned for her to walk towards him.
"Hey, could you go and get Ariella Potter please. If you can't find her can you get Ember Potter for me?" Harry asked politely.
The first year squeaked and nodded enthusiastically before giving the password to the portrait and disappearing inside. After a few minutes Ariella came outside and looked at Harry feeling rather confused as to why he was at her school.
"Dad, why are you here? Shouldn't you be at home with mum and Fliss?" Ariella asked.
"Felicity Ariella and I came here to see you. I heard about your project," Harry replied.
Ariella looked down at the floor and frowned then said, "Oh."
"Yes I should think that your answer would be an oh too. Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because it isn't important. I'm working with him because I have to and not because I want to. As soon as I have my O then I'll forget that I ever worked with him. Nothing has changed between us, we still hate each other and we both hate the fact that we were paired together. You really have nothing to worry about dad, I hate him with every bone in my body!"
Harry smiled at Ariella and hugged her. When he had broken away he held her by the shoulders and looked at her.
"Just promise me that you'll work with him in public places. Places like the library or somewhere where someone can see you. I don't trust him at all and if his father were to find out then I don't want to think what might happen to you. He still hates the fact that he didn't kill me in the war and I killed his master. Please Ariella promise me."
Ariella looked at Harry feeling confused once again and sighed.
"Dad, I don't know what you mean. You're not making any sense whatsoever and I'm the smart kid."
"I know, I know. You take after your aunt, bless her soul. Ariella promise me that you won't go anywhere alone with this boy."
"Okay dad. I Ariella Grace Potter promise my dad, the oh so great Harry Potter not to go anywhere alone with Lucas Malfoy and while we're on the subject of Aunt Hermione, I upset Dessy because I mentioned her name. What do I do dad? I feel so mean for doing that to her."
"She'll be fine. Say you're sorry and you didn't mean to and if you have to blame it on me for letting you speak about her. Ariella you have to realise that both Dessy and Uncle Ron are still hurting. Ron because she was the love of his life and they didn't have much time together before Hermione died, they were planning to get married once Dessy was born but of course that didn't happen and Dessy because she never knew her mother. Why do you think Ron never married? He couldn't let go of Hermione."
"But isn't he seeing Lavender now?" Ariella asked.
"Yes but just because he's doing that it doesn't mean that he'll marry her. He knows how Hermione felt about Lavender at school and he knows how your mum and myself feels about her now and besides he likes being a single parent. He likes the fact that he doesn't have to share Dessy with anyone."
Ariella nodded and hugged her father. She then kissed his cheek and giggled at him before pulling away and walking towards the portrait.
"Ariella can you get Ember for me?"
"Sure."
Ariella then walked back inside and fetched her sister who slowly walked outside the tower.
"You got my letter then," Ember stated when she saw Harry waiting for her.
"Yes and I have warned your sister but you know how stubborn she is. She likes to see the good in everyone. Can you keep an eye on her while she's with Lucas please? I'm not asking you to follow her everywhere all I'm simply asking is if you see her in the same room as you with that boy then make sure she doesn't go anywhere alone with him."
Ember nodded then waved goodbye to Harry before walking back inside the tower. Harry sighed at the thought of Ariella going somewhere alone with Lucas and shuddered at the thought of what could happen to her, he then walked slowly out of the castle and out of the gates so he could apparate back to the house he lived in with Ginny and his daughters.
Later that day, Ariella was completing some homework that she had left in the library when Dawn ran into the library. She looked around for Ariella and saw her working away at a table near the back. She walked briskly over to her and sat down. When Ariella didn't look up Dawn coughed to get her attention. Ariella sighed and put her quill down and looked up at Dawn.
"Yes?" Ariella asked.
"I know that you don't like to be disturbed when you do your homework but this is important!" Dawn replied.
"Well what is it then?"
"Lucas' sister has just been injured in the Slytherin Quidditch practise! She's unconscious but they've taken her to the hospital wing. I saw them and Lucas looks quite worried!" Dawn explained excitedly.
"Oh Merlin! I have to go and see if he's alright!" Ariella exclaimed.
Dawn looked at Ariella bewildered and said, "Why are you worrying about him? This is great news for you because it means you can do loads of the project on your own!"
"Because having a sibling fall off a broom and be unconscious isn't nice! Besides this could be the perfect time to show him that Potters aren't selfish like Malfoys!"
Dawn nodded and watched as Ariella quickly stuffed everything on the table into her bag and ran out of the library. Ariella ran through the halls of Hogwarts until she reached the hospital wing. Lucas was sat on the floor outside the door on his own with his head in his hands. Ariella walked slowly over to him and sat down on the floor. Lucas didn't even notice that someone was sat next to him.
"I just heard. What happened?" Ariella asked quietly.
Lucas looked at her and sniffed. It was obvious that he had been shedding some tears over the whole incident.
"Why do you care? Why should I tell you what happened?" Lucas replied in his usual Slytherin manner.
"Because I know what it feels like. When I was nine Ember fell off a broom. It probably wasn't like your sister's accident but it was still scary. We had to take her to St. Mungo's and mum was really angry with dad for ages afterwards even though Ember was okay. We may hate each other but I still care about you. No one deserves anything like this to happen to them."
Lucas sighed and wiped his eyes on the sleeve of his green Slytherin Quidditch uniform. He then looked at Ariella and smiled at her. It was probably the first genuine smile she had ever seen out of him.
"We were playing a practise game and I was looking for the snitch as usual. After we played for a few minutes I looked out of the corner of my eye and saw a bludger heading straight for her. I shouted to her to move but it was too late, the bludger hit her and she fell off her broom. When I saw that I tried to catch her but she landed onto the grass before I got to where she was falling. It happened so fast and now she's unconscious. I don't know what to do! What do I do Ari?" Lucas explained.
Ariella looked at Lucas and smiled then said, "You said my name. You didn't call me Potter and before that you smiled at me. It wasn't a smirk like usual, it was a real smile."
"Yeah I suppose I did. So what do I do?"
"Well, I suppose you wait until someone tells you what's wrong with your sister then you'll have to owl your parents to tell them. They deserve to know what happened. Do you want me to wait with you?"
"Please. I'm sure you have better things to do though instead of sitting here on the cold floor with your enemy."
Ariella thought of the homework she had to do and decided that keeping Lucas more company was more important than homework after all she could do the homework later that evening. She then thought of her father and how angry he would be if she went against her promise but what he didn't know wouldn't hurt him.
"It's okay. I can stay here with you, it's better than Charms homework anyway and besides I can do that later," Ariella replied.
Lucas put his hand on Ariella's shoulder and looked at her.
"Thank you," he whispered.
Half an hour later, the healer came out of the hospital wing and found Lucas laughing at something that Ariella had just said. Lucas saw the healer and stood up to face her.
"She has concussion and some broken ribs. I healed the ribs but I can't do anything for the concussion until she wakes up. I think you had best go to your dormitory and get some sleep because I don't think she'll wake up until tomorrow. You are of no use being here at the moment Mr. Malfoy," the healer explained.
Lucas nodded and looked at Ariella. He held out his hand to her, which she took, and he pulled her up off the floor.
"Well I suppose I had best get some sleep. Thanks for staying with me Ari. I'll see you tomorrow after dinner in the library?" he said.
"You're welcome and yes in the library after dinner but I'm sure that we'll see each other before that during lessons," Ariella replied.
Lucas nodded then said good-bye to her before walking in the direction of the Slytherin common room. As he disappeared down the hallway, Ariella looked at him and felt butterflies flying around her stomach. She couldn't possibly be attracted to him. She wasn't allowed to feel such attraction to her supposed enemy but little did she know Lucas was thinking the same about her.
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